Sleeping beauty and the dynamics of de se beliefs

This paper examines three accounts of the sleeping beauty case: an account proposed by Adam Elga, an account proposed by David Lewis, and a third account defended in this paper. It provides two reasons for preferring the third account. First, this account does a good job of capturing the temporal continuity of our beliefs, while the accounts favored by Elga and Lewis do not. Second, Elga’s and Lewis’ treatments of the sleeping beauty case lead to highly counterintuitive consequences. The proposed account also leads to counterintuitive consequences, but they’re not as bad as those of Elga’s account, and no worse than those of Lewis’ account.

中医诸“优势”辨析

通过对“中医是我国优秀传统文化的组成部分”、“中医博大精深,属于‘超科学’”和“中医是系统医学”三种较为流行的中医“优势”的说法的辨析,不难发现,这些优势说法具有自我标榜的性质,并没有确实的依据。固守这些没有科学依据的“优势”,容易导致医学守旧,不利于我国医学科学的进步。     

Rational Thinking and Stress Management in Health Workers: A Psychoeducational Program

The paper describes the rationale and contents of a graduate-level practicum on stress management. The course objective is consistent with the current call for improved training in psychological issues in medical education. Participants were 39 occupational health practitioners (physicians, industrial hygienists, nurses, and physiotherapists) in the Tel-Aviv University Medical School graduate program in occupational health. Twenty-five students in the same program who did not participate in the practicum were included as comparison subjects. The course was based on a cognitive-behavioral model (Rational-Emotive Behavior Training) developed by Ellis. The one-semester practicum aimed to reduce irrational/dysfunctional thinking patterns which are considered to be causal factors in stress etiology. Irrationality was significantly reduced by the end of the course and perceived psychosocial professional efficacy was increased. The improvements in such personal anti-stress resources may benefit health workers and clients alike. It is recommended to include such courses to the professional training of all health care practitioners.     

An Investigation of Irrational Beliefs and Death Anxiety as a Function of HIV Status

The present study investigated the relationship of irrational beliefs and death anxiety as a function of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status in homosexual and bisexual men. Recruited for this study were 101 HIV-seropositive participants (34 asymptomatic, 30 symptomatic, and 37 symptomatic and diagnosed with AIDS) and a contrast group (40 HIV-seronegative). In the primary analysis, HIV-negative participants in this study could not be differentiated from asymptomatic, symptomatic, and AIDS diagnosed HIV-infected participants on measures of death anxiety and irrational beliefs regardless of the status or severity of illness. In addition, irrational beliefs strongly predicted death anxiety for all participants. Results from post hoc analyses suggested that HIV status produced an interaction effect with level of total irrational beliefs and together predicted death anxiety. Even in these analyses, total irrational beliefs explained more of the variance of death anxiety than HIV status. These results are discussed within the context of the need for expanding cognitive-behavioral treatment options for HIV-infected individuals.     

Intolerance of Uncertainty Mediates the Relation Between Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms and Anger

Previous research has shown that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) report elevated anger compared with nonanxious individuals; however, the pathways linking GAD and anger are currently unknown. We hypothesized that negative beliefs about uncertainty, negative beliefs about worry and perfectionism dimensions mediate the relationship between GAD symptoms and anger variables. We employed multiple mediation with bootstrapping on cross-sectional data from a student sample (N = 233) to test four models assessing potential mediators of the association of GAD symptoms to inward anger expression, outward anger expression, trait anger and hostility, respectively. The belief that uncertainty has negative personal and behavioural implications uniquely mediated the association of GAD symptoms to inward anger expression (confidence interval [CI] = .0034, .1845, P_M = .5444), and the belief that uncertainty is unfair and spoils everything uniquely mediated the association of GAD symptoms to outward anger expression (CI = .0052, .1936, P_M = .4861) and hostility (CI = .0269, .2427, P_M = .3487). Neither negative beliefs about worry nor perfectionism dimensions uniquely mediated the relation of GAD symptoms to anger constructs. We conclude that intolerance of uncertainty may help to explain the positive connection between GAD symptoms and anger, and these findings give impetus to future longitudinal investigations of the role of anger in GAD.     

Spiritual Development in the Fourth Quarter of Life

SUMMARY

Spirit, the activating or essential principle influencing a person, and body interpenetrate each other but do not dominate each other in predictable ways. Normal aging is neither a failure of the human spirit nor a failure in the body's Biology. The spirit becomes more apparent as a result of spiritual development.

The fourth quarter of life covers age 75 to 100 years. Prior to age 75, the human spirit undergoes significant developmental events: a crisis of meaning which may result in conversion or more commonly stripping or shedding; transitions, including loss of clearly defined roles and loss of the sense that the individual's life makes a difference.

One motif applied by our culture to old age is the “iconic illusion”; however, it is evident that in some respects this motif has limited application to the fourth quarter of life. “Meaning making” is, in fact, enhanced in the fourth quarter of life, given reasonable levels of cognitive health. The desire and ability to make sense out of existence, to draw together an understanding of a meaningful life trajectory, is best done in the fourth quarter of life. The dominant sense of time in the fourth quarter of life particularly facilitates spiritual development.     

Adolescent beliefs about AIDS prevention

Abstract

Four hundred and ten school children, aged between 13 and 16 years, were administered a questionnaire to investigate (a) their perceptions of AIDS and implications of the disease for the victim; (b) beliefs about how best to prevent the spread of disease; (c) sources of information and (d) AIDS relevant topics they would like to learn in school. The results suggested that there were few differences in knowledge or attitude as a function of age, but some significant differences due to sex. Boys were more likely to derogate the AIDS victim compared with girls. In terms of different strategies for prevention, boys were more in favour of “scare” approaches, and girls of information-giving. The success of any AIDS education package may be at least partly determined by individual beliefs about the disease, and preferences for different educational strategies.     

Just world beliefs, causal beliefs, and acquaintance: Associations with stigma toward eating disorders and obesity

The current study investigated the relationship between just world beliefs and stigmatizing attitudes toward eating disorders and obesity. Further, the associations between stigma and causal beliefs, and between stigma and acquaintance with these conditions, were examined. Participants (n = 447) read four vignettes describing an individual with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, or obesity. After each vignette, participants completed questionnaires assessing stigmatizing attitudes, just world beliefs, causal beliefs, and acquaintance with the condition depicted in the vignette. Stronger just world beliefs were associated with greater stigma toward all three eating disorders, as well as obesity (rs ranging from −.11 to −.18). More stigmatizing attitudes were associated with greater attribution of individual responsibility for the development of the disorder. However, participants with personal experience or who knew someone with the depicted problem did not have lower stigma scores than those who did not. The current study suggests that justification ideologies such as just world beliefs and controllability beliefs may underlie the stigmatization of eating disorders and obesity. These findings provide support for stigma reduction efforts aimed at targeting justification ideologies and altering causal beliefs.     

The role of traditionality in the relationships among parental support,career decision-making self-efficacy and career adaptability

Integrating career construction (Savickas, 2013) and cognitive evaluation (Ryan & Deci, 2002) theories, we examined the moderating role of traditionality beliefs in the indirect relationships among parental support, career decision-making self-efficacy and career adaptability among Chinese university students. Data were collected from 731 undergraduate students in China at two measurement periods, 18 months apart. Results showed that Time 1 parental support was associated positively with Time 1 career decision-making self-efficacy and Time 2 career adaptability. In addition, the conditional indirect effects of Time 1 parental support in predicting Time 2 career adaptability via Time 1 career decision making self-efficacy were stronger among students with low as opposed to high traditionality beliefs. The implications of the results in terms of theory and practice are discussed.     

Perceived Control Over Aging-Related Declines: Adaptive Beliefs and Behaviors

ABSTRACT— The belief that people are in control of desired outcomes, including those associated with aging, is a hallmark of American culture. Nevertheless, older adults are less likely than the young to believe there are things that can be done to control aging-related declines in areas such as memory. Within age groups, individual differences in control beliefs are related to cognitive performance, health, and well-being. Mechanisms linking perceived control and positive outcomes include adaptive behaviors such as strategy use and physical activity. There is some evidence that control beliefs can be modified in later life, as illustrated in an intervention for fear of falling. Further work is needed to examine the antecedents of perceived control in later life and the implications of control beliefs in other aging-related domains.